This week’s guest is Rose Aguilar, author, “Red Highways: A Liberal’s Journey into the Heartland,” host of Your Call, a daily, live call-in radio show on NPR-affiliates KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco and KUSP 88.9 FM in Santa Cruz. She is a contributor to the book, Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland. She also writes for Alternet.org and offers political analysis for the BBC.

About the book:
“Tired of speaking to like-minded people, San Francisco blogger and radio journalist Rose Aguilar quit her job, bought a Toyota van, picked up her boyfriend, and took off on a six-month road trip through southern and mountain states. There she interviewed a wide array of people who rarely, if ever, appear in the national media. They include a former Republican evangelical pastor who now preaches inclusion in Tulsa; anti-war, pro-choice, and green Republicans; and a Montana hunter planning to leave his job as a conservationist to fight for gay rights.

This political travelogue challenges stereotypes and goes far beyond the sound bites and statistics to reveal what red-state voters really care about—and what they expect from their political leaders.”

Listen to the podcast of last week’s show and listen live at www.samanthaclemens.com AM 1510 in Boston.

And Father’s Day – paternity leave in Sweden? Primate Dad’s strutting their stuff with babies? Should there be a presumption of joint custody when parents divorce? Sperm donors? Is this a good idea? How many half-siblings are out there who don’t know it?

What conclusions can we draw from this? Will the voters find the tea party candidates too extreme in the general elections next November? Doest his bode well for Democrats?

And, what about the latest weird thing from South Carolina: Alvin Greene?

“I’m the Democratic Party nominee,” Greene says in the interview at his father’s home on a lonely stretch of rural highway in central South Carolina. “The people have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina.”

RISK: What do Wall Street, Big Oil, climate change, saving for retirement, and wearing helmets have in common? Human are LOUSY at assessing risk.

KIDS KILLING KIDS IN BOSTON: Not my problem, you say? Well, if altruism makes you nervous, don’t you at least want these kids to be productive citizens so they can contribute to your social security fund? Oh that’s right…you want the government to keep its hands off your social security.

ANGRY PRESIDENT: Am I the only one that actually prefers that the President keep a cool head in the face of a disaster? Does that mean I am somehow emotionally-challenged?

A THRILL SEEKER’S PARADISE – THE MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION – Well, maybe not, but… Did the Scott Brown election light a fire under the Dems? Does the success of Dems in the mid-term elections hinge on the unemployment rate? Does it matter if the state auditor talks crazy sometimes?